Developer of 'The Yard' to pay for $450K traffic light

The City of Orlando is placing a new stoplight at the intersection of Alden Road and Virginia Drive that will cost a whopping $450,000. The new stoplight is being installed, in part, because of a new development called The Yard that will take up more than a block of Alden Road behind the railroad tracks at Orange Avenue. It's a project Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer really likes.

"They have done a really good job of working with the neighborhood to make sure that it is going to fit where it does, and making everyone comfortable with exactly what the development is going to be."

Because The Yard is so large, taxpayers will only have to front the money for the $450,000 stoplight. Mayor Dyer says the developer will pay it back.

"Their impact fees will more than cover the traffic light."

Why would a stoplight cost $450,000? One of the reasons is that the light will sit just yards from another stoplight at Orange and Virginia, and just feet from the railroad tracks used by SunRail.

"They'll be interconnected, so that traffic will flow more consistently and it will be safer for everybody. They will be synched with the traffic signal at Orange, as well as the railroad crossing, so that you don't have a backup one to the other or vice versa."

The cost includes new and special mast arms, and the ability for both lights and the railroad crossing to communicate with each other.